Carolingian Renaissance

Hi,

I am looking for good books about the rise of the Carolingian Empire and the Carolingian Renaissance. I am particularly interested in the scholars gathered at Charlemagne and his sons' courts. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Out of what I've read I think I'd suggest Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation by Rosamond McKitterick. It's a moderately academic book but not too bad. It's also a series of essays but a lot of them are about, frex, the revival of Latin Literature or Carolingian art - things that arose from the intellectual court life.

If you can find a used copy for a decent price, a nice companion book would be Peter Godman's Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance. You'll have to beat me to it though - I've been looking.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: I just took a glance at your library. This book won't be a problem for you. I always worry a bit in case someone's used to more of the popular histories.

Thanks! I will look at them for sure

I must say I'm intrigued by the title of this piece: "The Prankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751–987"
by R McKitterick…

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For the little bit of Charlemagne we did in my Medieval lit class, we used Two Lives of Charlemagne by Einhard. The course that spends an entire term on Charlemagne uses some book by Charlemagne-scholar Paul Dutton--I think Carolingian Civilization: A Reader, but it might be one of this other books. Hope that helps.

I think if I were going to study the Carolingians today, I'd take up Arabic and delve into some of the Spanish and Northern African archives.

#4 McKitterick's great. I have that book but it's in my TBR stack next time I head back (chronologically forward from what I'm reading now) to the Carolingians.

#5 Those are two excellent books - one a contemporary source and the other a collection of sources. But they don't do much in the way of synthesis.

Here's some Carolingian news for you. A 1200 year old Carolingian coin has been found in Norway. http://sciencenordic.com/oldest-charlemagne-coin-norway

Find whatever you can by Luitpold Wallach, an expert on Alcuin.

As this thread has just been resurrected, we would be remiss if we didn't include the most recent masterpiece to enter the canon of Carolingian studies: Thomas Noble's Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians.

8: Interesting article, thank you very much!

On the less heavy-duty side, there is an old book, Carolingian Portraits by Eleanor Shipley Duckett, doyenne of medieval studies at Smith College during the mid-twentieth century. It is accessible, beautifully written, but old. She gives a chapter to each of a number of the major court and church figures of Charles's reign.